Cultivators

Abstract

A cultivator has soil working blade members mounted on a horizontal shaft which is driven to rotate the members forwardly through the soil in the normal direction of travel. A baffle comprised of screen segments are mounted on the cultivator frame to partially surround the blade members. The screen segments are biased about respective pivots and a rod grating is connected to the baffle to extend downardly immediately to the rear of the blade members. The rear screen segment has V-shaped guides to ridge the soil. A hopper communicates with dosing outlets, each outlet being a nozzle device that extends between a pair of guides. Each nozzle device is pivotable to either one of two positions for planting tubers deep or shallow. A pair of rear wheels is connected to the rear of the frame and the wheels are drivenly connected to dosing conveyors leading to the outlets. An adjusting device is associated with each wheel to raise and lower the soil working blade members.

What we claim is: 
     
       1. A cultivator having a frame and soil working members rotatably mounted on said frame, driving means connected to said members to move same through the soil, baffle means being positioned adjacent said members and said baffle means including a screen and a pair of soil guide members with spaced apart lower edges positioned to the rear of the soil working members with respect to the normal direction of travel of the cultivator to receive worked soil from said soil working members, said pair of guide members extending upwardly and outwardly from said lower edges in substantially V-shaped relationship to one another in said edges being spaced apart to leave a gap through which worked soil received at the rear of rotatably soil working members is ridged. 
     
     
       2. A cultivator as claimed in claim 1, wherein a dosing device for introducing material onto and/or into the soil is located between said pair of guide members and directly above said gap. 
     
     
       3. A cultivator having a frame supporting a hopper and soil working members rotatably mounted on said frame, driving means connected to said members to move same through the soil, a baffle comprising a screen being located adjacent and to the rear of said members with respect to the normal direction of travel and said screen including at least one pair of soil guide members that is positioned at the lower portion of said screen, said pair of guide members being positioned adjacent the soil during operation and extending upwardly and outwardly from the soil in substantially V-shaped relationship to one another, said guide members being spaced apart from one another to leave a gap that forms a ridge of worked soil received via said screen, dosing means communicating with said hopper and said dosing means including an outlet located between said guide members above said gap to introduce material in the worked soil. 
     
     
       4. A cultivator as claimed in claim 3, wherein guide members have front edges that face said soil working members and are inclined downwardly and rearwardly with respect to the direction of travel, said guide members being curved upwardly and outwardly from lower edges thereof and said lower edges extending substantially horizontally. 
     
     
       5. A cultivator as claimed in claim 3, wherein a recess is formed in said screen in register with said gap between the lower edges of the two guide members of said pair, the center of said recess being contained in a plane that extends substantially parallel to the direction of travel, said plane passing midway between said guide members. 
     
     
       6. A cultivator as claimed in claim 3, wherein there are a plurality of pairs of soil guide members positioned side-by-side at the rear of said soil working members and these members are mounted on a substantially horizontal shaft. 
     
     
       7. A cultivator as claimed in claim 6, wherein said baffle includes a grating and the latter is positioned between the soil working members and said guide members, said grating comprising a plurality of rods positioned to pass fine soil to said guide members. 
     
     
       8. A cultivator as claimed in claim 7, wherein said rods are curved with their centers of curvature coinciding with said shaft, the lower extremities of said rods being located at a level at least as low as that of the lower edges of said guide members. 
     
     
       9. A cultivator as claimed in claim 6, wherein a nozzle-like device of said dosing means is located between the two guide members of each pair and a delivery opening of said device is located at substantially the same level as lower edges of said two members, said device being entered through an opening in said screen. 
     
     
       10. A cultivator as claimed in claim 9, wherein each device has adjusting means to set same in either chosen one of two alternative positions, said device being pivotable between said two positions about an axis that is substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of said shaft. 
     
     
       11. A cultivator as claimed in claim 10, wherein each device is substantially funnel-shaped and forms part of a tuber planting mechanism. 
     
     
       12. A cultivator as claimed in claim 3, wherein two horizontally spaced apart ground wheels are connected by arm means to said frame at the rear thereof to support the cultivator, means adjusting said two ground wheels upwardly and downwardly with respect to said frame and said arm means, together with said wheels, having retaining means that secures the arm means and wheels in any chosen height adjustment relative to said frame. 
     
     
       13. A cultivator as claimed in claim 3, wherein said hopper extends throughout substantially the whole width of said cultivator, said dosing outlet being located rearwardly of said hopper with respect to the direction of travel and a flow control being positioned between said outlet and said hopper, the rear of said frame being supported on ground wheels and said flow control being drivenly connected to a transmission drivenly connected to said ground wheels during travel, said transmission being located between said ground wheels. 
     
     
       14. A cultivator as claimed in claim 3, wherein said soil working members are mounted on a substantially horizontal shaft and said shaft is connected to a drive transmission for rotation in a direction forwardly through the soil with respect to the direction of travel to throw soil up and over the shaft to said screen at the rear, said baffle extending forwardly from said screen to a location in front of said soil working members. 
     
     
       15. A cultivator having a frame and soil working members rotatably mounted on said frame, driving means connected to said members to move same through the soil, a baffle being located adjacent said members and said baffle comprising a plurality of screens that are separately pivoted to said frame, a rear screen including at least one pair of spaced apart soil guide members, a grating of said baffle extending downwardly in front of said rear screen and to the rear of the soil working members with respect to the normal direction of travel, said soil working members being mounted on a substantially horizontal shaft, said driving means connected to rotate said soil working members to throw soil through said grating to said guide members, dosing means, including a nozzle-like device, extending between the guide members and above a gap formed between these members, said dosing means including conveyor means, further driving means connected to move said conveyor means and deliver material to soil being ridged by said guide members.